Four people were killed and two others injured in shooting allegedly by accomplices of a sand contractor and retaliatory attack by a mob in Jatpura village under Bishunpura police station of Garhwa district on Friday morning.
The shooting ensued after villagers protested against the contractor lifting sand from the ghat, killing three persons - a man and his two sons. A mob of villagers, thereafter, also lynched one munshi (employee) of the contractor and injured two others in retaliation, Garhwa SP Alok said.
Irate villagers set ablaze 12 trucks, two JCB machines, one Bolero jeep and two bikes at Pipari Jatpura Balu Ghat.
The incident occurred when the villagers prevented the contractor from lifting sand from near 'Samshan' Ghat at the in the village, police said.
Henchmen of the contractor, Dhramveer Singh, who lives in Chhattisgarh, opened fire killing Uday Yadav (55) and his two sons - Niranjan (35) and Vimlesh (30), all residents of Pipari village under Bishunpura police station. A relative of the victims, Arun Yadav, was seriously injured in the incident, police said.
Following the incident, the villagers assembled at the spot in large numbers and went to one Nanak Yadav's house, and dragged out one of the 'Munshis' of the accused contractor, Styendra Singh, who was a tenant in Nanak's house, beating him to death. Villagers also beat up another staff Surendra Pal who is being treated at Government hospital.
The SP said that police have taken Surendra Pal into custody for interrogation.
Police had to face resistance of villagers when they wanted to recover the bodies. They were demanding `5 lakh compensation and jobs to the families of each of the deceased. They also demanded immediate arrest of accused Sanjit Singh.
Thereafter, the Superintendent of Police along with adequate forces reached the spot to maintain law and order and recovered the bodies and sent them for autopsy at Garhwa hospital.